Phantom Pain
by Mrfipp
Summary: Phantom pain is pain that feels like it's coming from a body part that's no longer there.


Fipp: Inspired by the number of MGSV jokes that have been on RWBY's 4chan board, even before the last episode.

Considering that Yang losing her arm took place in the same episode that Ironwood is revealed to be half-robot, I'm not too concerned with her getting a replacement, a couple of episodes max, so here's hoping that they decide to play up the emotional and psychological repercussions of this episode.

 **Phantom Pain**

Yang has seen Blake, on the ground, with a tall man standing over her and his sword in her gut. She had gotten angry, furious, more so than she had her entire life and threw herself at him, ready to take him on, to save her friend's life, to-

Everything after that was difficult to put together, like it was pieces of memories, and she was looking at them through a watery filter. She remembered the pain in her arm, and how hot it was, and how her entire body was suddenly drained of energy, that she didn't seem to have much energy left. Blake was carrying her on her shoulder, saying things, but she wasn't able to really hear much of it.

"Almost there." "Stay with me." "Please..." "I'm sorry..."

There was Sun too, she can recall, seeing him run up to them, saying things loudly and at a mile of minute before he stopped. She tried to look up to him, but found it difficult to raise her head for long, and the one glance she caught of his face she saw him shocked, and not looking directly at her, but lightly down and to the right. He stammered, which was something he didn't do, before speaking, and again she couldn't catch everything he was saying.

"Dragon." "Leaving." "Airship." Abandon."

The next thing she knew they were moving faster, and she was being carried between both of them.

Eventually she saw the backside of a large airship, the ramp down with a number of students piling into it. There were too many to instantly name, and just focusing her eyes on them was a trial in its own, but she could recognize Nora, Neptune, and Coco, shooting at the Grimm who came near the ship. They made it onto the ship and she was laid down on a seat, Blake kneeling over her, saying more things.

"Weiss." "Looking for..." "Soon."

Blake wasn't wearing her bow, where was it? Yang looked around, her eyes feeling heavy in her skull, trying to see what she could, and she found herself looking out the airship, to the oncoming sea of blackness. There were so many Grimm there, how did they expect to take them all down? Then a number of the Grimm went flying, and she saw two small figures dash out from their numbers.

"YANG!" was the cry she heard, as the small black and red figure almost instantly covered the distance to her. Her baby sister was safe, that was the best thing that she could have asked for, but before she could reach her, Jaune and Pyrrha stepped between them. Why would they do that, and what were they saying? For a moment, Ruby looked confused, trying to puzzle something together, but when she looked down at her, her expression slowly changed to one of horror.

Ruby screamed, and Yang blacked out.

000

Yang awoke the steady rhythm of a series of beeps, and a song playing off to the side, though it was not one she could recognize. Opening her eyes didn't help as everything was blurry and bright, and she didn't know where she was, she tried to move as much as she could, but her entire body felt sore, and every action was enough to tire her out.

"Yang?" she heard, and looking over she saw Blake standing there, a look of fatigue and worry.

"Blake..." she responded, her voice harsh and weak, her throat dry. "Where are we... Ruby... she..."

"We're in a hospitable Yang," Blake said, calmly and evenly. "Yang, I need you to just stay still, and don't move, please. I'll be back in a few moment, to get Ruby and Weiss, okay? Just please, don't move." She didn't give Yang a chance to respond as she ran out of the room, though she knew she wouldn't be doing too much moving any, she was just too tired.

It was difficult to tell how much time had passed, but sure enough and true to her word, Blake had returned with both Weiss and Ruby, and each of them took a different side to the bed she was in.

"What happened?" Yang asked, looking back to Blake. "That guy, and Beacon... Just what-"

"We'll explain everything later Yang," Blake said, her voice still calm, but straining to be so."But right now, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to be brave."

"Brave...?" Yang looked around, and away from Blake to her left, and to the foot of her bed, to Weiss, whose face was red, and looking off to the floor, before turning to her right, at Ruby. She had recognized that face, she'd seen it before, her sister had been crying, and a lot too. Who did this too her? What happened? "Ruby, it's okay, I'm alright..." The action was difficult, but she needed to be there for her sister, so she struggled to raise her right up, to try and comfort Ruby, and gently clasp her hand in-

The beeping began to increase, coming much faster than before as she saw what she needed to be brave for. Pushing herself up on a shaky left arm, she sat up, ignoring the screaming aches and pains of her body and reached over to grab at her right arm, first clutching at the elbow. She moved up, soon moving over bandages, and she expected it to keep going up, up the forearm, and to the wrist before meeting her hand, the palm and fingers, but instead it stopped. There was nothing there, instead just above the elbow it simply stopped. The others were talking, but she couldn't hear them, all she could do was focus on the fact that she no longer had an arm.

She panicked, she began to scream and cry, and tried to get out of the bed, she couldn't be there anymore, anywhere was better, but she couldn't be laying there anymore. They tried to stop her, begging her to stay put, even going as far as to hold her down, but they were not prepared for this sudden burst of energy and it took all three of them to hold down her thrashing form just to keep her down. There was a crash and the music stopped, but the beeping was only getting faster, and she could see several tall, white-clad figures rush into the room, two of them held her down while the third ran behind Blake with a needle in hand and injected it into a bag of water just hanging off to the side.

Almost instantly, her strength left her, sapped away more with every moment until all she could do was lay there, Everyone got off of her, and she could hear them talking to one another, but it was muddy, and soon there was nothing.

000

Yang came too, eventually, she didn't know when, and she assumed that she was stilled drugged with how light-headed she felt. It was enough to keep her from jumping out of the bed, and to keep her body numb, but otherwise she could think mostly straight.

She lost her arm, that was the dominating thought throughout the entire day.

They explained to her what had happened: Beacon was gone, overrun by White Fang and Grimm, the giant dragon burning the whole school to the ground, and toppling Ozpin's tower into rubble, and no one was certain where the headmaster was, or even if he was alive anymore. They evacuated, fleeing to the outer reaches of the city, which had been mostly secured, but no one dared to go near the remains of the school outside seasoned veteran Hunters from every kingdom, but from the way they talked about it, it sounded like it would be a very long time before anyone could be safe there. Somehow, Mercury and Emerald were involved in all of this, and Roman Torchwick was dead, eaten alive by the Grimm, while his psychotic mute was nowhere to be found. The White Fang had also retreated, leaving only bodies and ruins behind, Adam Taurus leaving no tracks to follow. When everything was said and done, no one had been captured, no was brought to justice, and in the end, the bad guys had won.

Her friends visited through the day; Sun, Sage, Scarlet, and Neptune, then Coco, Fox, Velvet and Yatsuhasi, and later, Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha and Ren. From them they talked about Maidens, but Pyrrha seemed reluctant to go further into it. It didn't matter though, Yang found herself not caring. Ruby, Weiss and Blake, on the other hand, were there the entire day, and even Uncle Qrow was there for a few hours, explaining that there was a lot to clean up, and that word had been sent to Dad, that he'd be back in a few days time. She wasn't looking forward to that.

Blake constantly apologized, saying that this was her fault, saying how that man had once been close to her. Weiss was angry, saying that she would make things right, make sure Yang would get all the help she would need, and how those "animals" would pay for everything they did, and naturally, this set off Blake, and the two began to fight. They'd fought before on this subject, on human-faunus relationships, and political issues and the Schnee Dust Company's work ethics, even after the reveal of Blake's heritage, but this was worst, they were screaming and shouting, until Ruby had to physically push them out of the room. She'd never heard her sister so angry and loud at the same time before. Moments later, Ruby returned, alone, and sat by Yang's side, still holding back her own tears.

Yang did what she always did and pulled Ruby into a hug and let her cry, telling her everything would be okay. It would be okay, everything would have to be okay.

At the end of the day. When visiting hours were over with, Yang found herself alone in the bed, the moonlight pouring through the window and onto her. She raised her arm, what was left of it, and turned it over, taking in every inch of detail there was. Once more she touched it, the stump, to make sure that this was not real, but as she removed the bandages, she could see that this was real, seeing the injury.

With no one to hear her, Yang broke down into tears and cried into the darkness of the night

000

Time passed, as it always did, how could it not? A week, maybe two? Either way, she found herself rarely alone, Ruby or her father always at her side, and while she both loved and appreciated their company, she found herself tired constantly.

"You really should eat something," he dad said, putting a bowl of stew in front of her, thick with meats and vegetables. She wasn't too hungry, but she tried, awkwardly taking the spoon with her left hand and managed to swallow almost half the bowl, a bit more than her previous meal, the doctors said she would need to keep up her appetite. She tried not to eat though, since it involved her hand, she had been right-handed; meals were tricky, it felt strange to use her left hand so much, from using utensils, to even just picking things up, and even writing her name ended up with her more miserable as she saw the barely-legible scribbles she made. Was that supposed to be a "g" or a "z"?

But, here she was now, sitting in a doctor's office in Atlas, her father speaking to the doctor while Ruby sat closely to her side. She'd had to thank Weiss for this later, she supposed, since this required her asking for a lot of favors from her sister, and possibly from her father.

The door behind them opened, and the doctor stood up, standing straight in a salute. "General Ironwood, sir! I was just talking with the patient and her family, making sure that I have all the information I need."

"That's good doctor," Ironwood said, stepping into the room. "Taiyang Xiao Long, we spoke on the phone?" he said, addressing her father, who stood up from his own seat.

"And you're Ironwood," her dad said. "Qrow has said a few things about you, most of them not good."

"I suppose most of those insults are not unwarranted, give the circumstances. I was actually hoping to speak with your daughter, alone."

"What do you have to say to her?" he dad responded, suspicious.

The doctor spoke up, "Mr. Xiao Long, I would recommended that you allow the General to speak with Yang, he knows a good deal about these sort of things, so it might be helpful."

Her father didn't say anything at first, and instead knelt down to Yang's eye level. "Yang, what do you want to do?"

Yang didn't look up to her, instead keeping her eyes down, the stump just at the edge of her vision. "Fine, let him talk, I guess."

With that, the doctor led her father out of the room, followed by a very reluctant Ruby, leaving her alone with the General.

"You feel it too, don't you?" Ironwood asked, stepping behind the doctor's desk. "You can still feel your arm, like its still there, in pain."

Eyes flashing red for a brief moment, Yang looked up and glared at the older man.

"I know what you're going through," he continued. "It's not an easy thing, it's-"

"And what do _you_ know?" she hissed harshly.

"I know plenty," Ironwood said, removing the glove from his right hand, and Yang could only find herself staring at the machine that was his hand. He then removed his coat and rolled down his sleeve, down to the elbow, revealing more machine.

Yang could only stare in shock.

"How far does it go?" she asked quietly, in spite of herself.

"Too far," Ironwood answered, solemnly. "Up to the shoulder, most of the side of chest, along with a number of internal organs, and down to the hip. I'm honest when I say without these prosthetics, I would be dead." He rolled the wrist and flexed the fingers, and she could hear mechanical noises with each movement, soft and faint, but still there. "I'm going to honest with you, Yang, but this is something you will live with for the rest of your life, there's no "getting better", it's just something that will be part of your life from now on. I've had these for years, yet I still have a phantom pain, I can still feel my body as though it is still there, and I know you can still feel your phantom limb as well."

Yang said nothing, and only looked down to the aching stump.

"Winter has been pulling a number of strings to get you a high end prosthetic, it should make things easily for you, but there will still be hurdles." With his flesh arm he reached down and drew out a revolver, leaving Yang confused as to what he was going to do, but could only stare in amazement as he began to spin and twirl in around, even throwing into into the air only to catch and and to continue with the tricks. It was like a spaghetti western she'd seen as a kid, he was pretty good. When he finished he switched the gun over to the other hand, the false hand, and repeated the performance, but noticed how different it was; it was slower, more mechanical and less fluid in motion, and he seemed to be putting more effort and concentration into the movement. It was still impressive, but she could tell that the difference. When he finished he grabbed the revolver and place it back into its holster. "You can still continue your education as a huntress-in-training, there are a number of hunters with false limbs who are able to make a healthy lifestyle despite such disabilities, but you must still be aware of your limits, maybe more so than others. If however, if you choose not to, then I don't think anyone would blame you."

She had been avoiding that line of thought since this all started, and everyone was acting as though they were stepping on egg shells. They were all thinking it, but no one was saying anything about it, she could see it on their faces every time anyone looked at it with a sad or pitying face; Do you still want to be a huntress?

"Just give me the goddamn arm," she growled.

000

The arm felt strange on her, heavy and foreign, like it didn't belong there, then again it didn't. When the doctors has made sure it was secured tightly enough on, she threw a punch, and instantly she knew it was wrong, her punches never felt like that. It was awkward and it threw her off her balance, like she was going to fall over if she didn't constantly readjust her footing, even Ember Celica felt more natural on her than this thing did. Then reminded her that she would need to rebuild the right armament from scratch since it had not been recovered before they evacuated Beacon, still attached to her right arm. The first time she had thought about it, it had made her sick, to think about her arm still at Beacon, lying on the floor of the cafeteria, rotting, what did it look like now? Had the maggots gotten to it, or had a Grimm eaten it whole like a small snack?

That was for later though, and right now she had to deal with the very difficult task of squeezing a foam ball. It as part of her physical therapy, to constantly squeeze the foam ball, to get her used to the wires and cables at attached that nerves to the machine on her arm. It would take a while before she had full dexterity control, they said, and she wondered if she ever would, the fingers barely moved, only twitching somewhat unless she put all her effort into a single digit, and then she could almost make it curl enough to touch the metal palm. Yeah, good for her, whoopdie-doo.

For once she did not have have her dad or Ruby crowding around her, as she sat in the garden outside the hospital, they had given her space when she had asked, and she was thankful for it. She loved them but there were being suffocating lately, though she didn't doubt that they had sent in Uncle Qrow to look after her, sitting on the other end of the bench, constantly watching her from the corner of his eye, and he hasn't said much. She tried to squeeze again and the ball fell out, landing softly on the grass between her feet. Swearing she reached down and tried to pick it up, ignoring how Qrow was adjusting himself in his seat as though he was about to get up. The metal fingers tried to grasp at the ball, the thumb trying to hook under it, but no matter what she did, no matter how tightly she gripped or what combination of fingers she tried, she was not able to get a good enough grip. Finally she managed to get a hold of it, pinning the ball with her index finger to the palm, but as she slowly raised it up, it fell out, landing back where it had in the first place.

Yang brought her foot down on the ball, crushing it beneath her slip on shoe and sent it flying across the garden, vanishing into a bush, and slammed her fist and prosthetic onto the bench. Her hand ached, she could feel it ache, the flesh and bone, while the prosthetic could only rattle as the hand shook in the wrist joint. She wanted to just rip it off and throw it into a deep lake.

"Have something you want to say?" Qrow said, looking right at her. "You know, any time you need to talk, there are people here for you. Me, your dad and sister, your friends, all you need to do is ask-"

"I want to kill them," Yang said, suddenly. Leaning forward she buried her face into her hand, leaving the other arm limp at her side. "Emerald was at the stadium, Mercury was walking around after I blew out his kneecaps, and that Cinder woman..." Her breath was deep as she moved her hand up and through her hair. "They were pretending to be a team for the tournament, they were literally down the hall from us. If I ever see any of them ever again, I'm going to kill them all."

"Yang, I know you're angry, and you have every right to be-"

"I mean it though," she snapped, turning in her seat to meet his gaze, impassive, as though he was trying to figure her out. "Adam Taurus, Blake said that at one point they had been friends, close, but I don't care. Even if she completely changes her mind on him, and begs me not too, I'm going to rip his arm off, and then kill him. Fair is fair after all."

"Look, there's a lot about this situation that isn't fair, but-"

"I want to kill Raven too," she said, her voice now bitter.

"W-What?" Qrow stammered. That was a first. "Yang, I know you have some complicated and mixed feeling about your mother-"

"When she saved me on the train, I didn't know she was there, she just appeared in a portal and left and quickly as she came. For all I know she could have been there when that man... did that thing to me."

"If Raven had been there, she would have-"

"Would she?" Yang growled. "You said it yourself, her message to me, that next time I would be on my own, and you also said that she saw the world in a way that you didn't agree with. So tell me, Qrow, do you honestly think that if Raven was there, do you think she would have gone out of her way to save me?"

Qrow opened his mouth, but he stopped and nothing came out. The longer he said nothing, the more tired he looked, and his refusal to answer was all the answer she needed.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Yang jumped up from the bench and stormed away from him, the prosthetic hanging like a cement block.

000

When she finally managed to find herself alone, she reluctantly looked down at the prosthetic and raised her arm. She moved the hand as best she could, hating the amount of time it took for the wrist to react, the input lag was just awful. Using her hand she grasped it, and it still felt strange and foreign, and she was certain that she could _feel_ the grasping sensation through the metal.

Yang hated it, but at the same time she knew that nothing she could do nothing to change that. All that she could do was hope that one day the phantom pain would fade.

000

Please review,

Mrfipp


End file.
